“Everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.”
“If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack of good advice for the last four thousand years! A bit more makes no difference!”
Christianity is about being a friend of God. It’s relational. It’s not about being “faced with an argument which demands your assent, but (being faced) with a Person who demands your confidence.”
“There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made…if you want to get wet you must go into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get into the thing that has them…a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you. If you are not, you will remain dry.”
The first step is to surrender ourselves to him. “The more we get what we now call ourselves out of the way and let him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become…Your real new self will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for him… look to Christ and you will find him, and with him, everything else thrown in.”
Surrender means saying “yes” to God, but it also means saying “no” to 1,000 other things.
“The almost impossible thing is to hand over your whole self to Christ…You wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job every morning consists simply in shoving them all back…in listening to that other voice…in letting that other point of view, that larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”
Questions: What evidence is there in my own life that I’ve surrendered to God? In what ways do I live to please him? What are the first things I think about in the morning? Are there things I’ve said “no” to in order pursue my relationship with God? How can I continue to “surrender” to him in more and deeper ways?
It’s a life-long process.
Supplemental:
The Trinity - One God exists eternally as three distinct Persons.
“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course, we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with fact. Of course anyone can be simple, if he has no facts to bother about.”
We can expect when we’re talking about the transcendent God, unanswered questions will only increase exponentially! We should expect there to be aspects of God’s nature that don’t make sense to our time-bound, space-bound, tadpole brains. We should expect that our language and thought will be unable to capture the ineffable realities of the divine nature.
The Father, the Son and the Spirit have set the table. The supremely glad and glorious society/ community they’ve enjoyed eternally was always meant to be shared! That’s why we’re here in the first place. We’re all invited to the party!
https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/god-video/? utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_video
Bible Project podcast episode #114 (God Series Part 19 “The Trinity and God’s Identity”)